Just a heads up, if you have a go at the Staffordshire, cook and stir the curds longer than I did. I think mine needed more time to work in the whey and, like a tomme, the moisture loss should be mostly done in the pot and not much is needed to be done in the press. Well, this is my current working hypothesis and my next experiment with Staffordshire will put that to the test. However, I think a Lancashire is the next make in my forseeable future. Haven't made one of those for a while and my last one was something I would like to repeat.

- Jeff

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The wise do not always start out on the right path, but they do know when to change course.

The cheese started to collect some wild moulds this week, including some blue! I gave it a clean by washing in some brine and vinegar solution, dried it out and back in the cave. Still smells fantastic and the rind is nice and clean again. Nearly 2 weeks old, another 2 to go!

Getting quite a lot of moulds on this cheese. 2 weeks old now and the aroma has changed from sweet, fresh curd to a more mature aged aroma. The photo shows it after a good brine wash, which has removed the blue mould but the red/brown mould remains. I'm a bit worried that this mould is not helping my cheese, particularly as the aroma has changed so much. Any advice would be much appreciated thanks.

Let the rind dry out, and from now on, just brush any mold with a clean nail brush to keep it in check. These molds are just on the surface, so the inner paste is fine. If you over salt, etc, though, you may throw off the salt balance. I rarely salt or vinegar wash my rinds any more. I just trim them off when it's time to eat the cheese.

- Jeff

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The wise do not always start out on the right path, but they do know when to change course.

OK thanks for the advice Jeff. I think my aging container is keeping the humidity a bit too high as I noticed the cheeses was sweating just slightly and this was probably contributing to the mould growth. Its dry now, and back in the fridge with the lid slightly ajar on the aging container. My first hard cheese so a bit nervous about getting the rind treatment right.

Mal, how often do you wash with your apple cider vinegar, and do you use this on your Caerphilly?

So, after 3.5 weeks I decided to cut the cheese and have a taste......

Yes, very impressed! The cheese is quite mild and creamy, but has a nice bite at the end. Very much better than supermarket mass made cheddar, and it even has a slight taste of aged ceddar, which I think is amazing at 3.5 weeks! The rind is quite tasty, if you like the extra bite and perhaps, bitterness from the moulds. This is definitely a cheese to make again and experiment with. As well as making fine adjustments to the make, I would like to play with the rind treatments to see what other flavours I can develop. Very, very happy with this cheese, my first attempt at hard cheese.

Very nice cheese Bob! Lovely interior. I always end up with mechanical openings, but you seem to have achieved a nice solid paste. And a cheese to you for it. Sounds like the taste is good too. Nice. As I say, caerphilly is one of my own favorites. The quick turn around time just one of its many positives.

- Jeff

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The wise do not always start out on the right path, but they do know when to change course.

Yes, I plan to vac pack half the wheel and age it for another 4 weeks to assess the difference.

I'm very pleased with the solid paste, first time I have used my simple press and the result exceeded my expectations. The paste has a slightly rubbery texture, similar to some Swiss styles, or even Jarlsberg. The flavour was quite surprising. I was expecting a much milder, sweeter flavour, but this one has a good, rich cheese taste with that hint of bite at the finish. I can only liken the bite to that lovely aged cheddar bite, without the same depth of flavour.

Thanks for all the recommendations to try this cheese, it really is a great cheese to play with and develop some techniques for hard cheese making.

I just use a clean Cheese cloth dipped in Cider Vinegar. you don't want to wet the rind too much but you do need to make sure the mold is dampened. It's not so much a washing excersise as a weeding one. We just finished our last Caerphilly - Thankfully We have a three day weekend so I can make another. My last batch of Camembert are just coming on so we will eat those and when they are finished the next Caerphilly will be ready - Just.

Caerphilly is such a wonderful house cheese and great with 'Bubbly' by the way.

-- Mal

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